Gerardus Willems

Gerardus Willems AM served as Associate Professor in Piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, for 37 years from 1981 until his retirement in 2018. He chaired the Keyboard Unit until 2008 and contributed extensively to teaching, research, and performance. Born in 1946 in Tilburg, Netherlands, Willems migrated to Australia as a child and received his early piano training on scholarship at the Brabant Conservatorium. He graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, studying under Gordon Watson, and earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Sydney. He pursued further studies in Europe, including piano and conducting in Amsterdam and Munich under Greville Rothon, assistant to Claudio Arrau, and obtained a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Yale University.

A distinguished concert pianist, Willems performed internationally across the USA, United Kingdom, Europe, Asia, New Zealand, Australia, and Israel, collaborating with conductors such as Sir Bernard Heinze, Nicholas Braithwaite, and John Lanchbery. He served as touring pianist for the Australian Ballet, accompanying Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureev, and Mikhail Baryshnikov, and won the Queen Victoria Piano Competition. Willems pioneered as the first Australian pianist to record Ludwig van Beethoven's complete 32 piano sonatas on a Stuart & Sons piano for ABC Classics, released in three volumes between 1998 and 2000, earning ARIA Awards for Best Classical Album in 1999 and 2000. His recordings also include all five Beethoven piano concertos with Sinfonia Australis conducted by Antony Walker (2003), Diabelli Variations (2010), complete Mozart piano trios with Mozartrois (1991), Franz Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Edvard Grieg's "Morning Mood" album (2015), and the comprehensive 14-CD/DVD "Beethoven-Willems Collection" (2013). His recordings represent Australia's largest classical music project and made him the best-selling classical artist in Australian recording history. Willems held guest professorships, including six months at Hochschule für Musik Freiburg in 2008 and the Hephzibah Menuhin Chair at the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem in 2001, served as artist-in-residence at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore in 2012, and delivered masterclasses at institutions such as Juilliard, UCLA, Sibelius Academy, and Freiburg Hochschule. His honors include Member of the Order of Australia (2012) for services to music as a pianist and educator, Centenary Medal (2003), and Queen Elizabeth II Australian Musical Scholarship (2001).